Comprehensive Dental CareAppointments: (202) 466-3599

Alan Marx D.D.S.

Comprehensive Dental Care

For comfortable dental hygiene treatment in the Washington DC, District of Columbia area, Dr. Alan Marx is known for having a gentle touch. The friendly team at Comprehensive Dental Care provides teeth cleaning for a whiter smile.

Maintaining good dental hygiene is the foundation for healthy teeth and gums. We're committed to helping you have a lifetime of oral health.

Don't let untreated dental problems get you down. Rebuild your confidence with a beautiful new smile. From simple treatments that make a big difference, to more extensive work, unveiling the smile you were meant to have can have profound life-changing effects. Serving the Washington DC, DC area and offering cosmetic dentistry, Dr. Marx can help you develop an affordable treatment plan you'll feel good about.

For comfortable tooth cleaning in the Washington DC, District of Columbia area, Dr. Alan Marx is known for having a gentle touch. The friendly team at Comprehensive Dental Care provides dental hygiene treatments for a whiter smile.

Maintaining good dental hygiene is the foundation for healthy teeth and gums. We're committed to helping you have a lifetime of oral health.

A negative self image can be detrimental to many facets of your life. Washington DC area dentist Dr. Alan Marx understands the positive life-changing power that a healthy and beautiful smile can bring to you. Here at Comprehensive Dental Care, we don't want you to be embarrassed any longer. Why not take your smile - and even your life - to a new level of self-confidence and beauty?

At Comprehensive Dental Care, we offer quality, personalized care. Serving the Washington DC, DC area, we're happy to discuss the variety of treatment options available to you. If you're interested in sedation or sleep dentistry options, please schedule an appointment with Alan Marx, D.D.S., and we can provide you with all the information you need.

The Artistry Of Tooth Bonding and Dental Crowns

Throughout history, dentists have tried to recreate the function and beauty of natural teeth when tooth structure has been lost. Restoring function used to be the main goal of a dentist because prior to the 1970's, dentistry lacked the proper technology to achieve fine esthetics as well as function. Dentists could only predictably offer patients a restoration that would simply "fill" the empty space. Today, dentistry has more advanced dental materials and newly developed techniques that allow dentists to offer artistically-recreated, natural-looking crowns and modern tooth bonding that would fool even the most critical eye.

Before you can understand how crowns and tooth bonding can mimic teeth you must understand why natural teeth appear as they do.

What Color Are Your Teeth?

It is a common mistake for patients to think that their teeth are all one color. Your teeth are never just one color. They are a series of superimposed translucent layers of varying shades. Teeth also have different surface textures that reflect light in ways that affect the color of your teeth.

Your teeth are made up of three layers: pulp, dentin, and enamel. Each layer has a specific thickness, composition and structure. Additionally, the way light reflects off of or transluces through the layers gives you the color of your teeth. Using knowledge about the three layers of teeth allow dentists and dental technicians to recreate natural-looking dental crowns and tooth bonding.

Who Makes the Crowns?

Dental crown technicians are the true artisans in dentistry. Dentists begin the crown-making process by reducing the size of the tooth, making an impression of the reduced tooth, and selecting the proper shades of the tooth. This information is then transferred to the dental technician so a crown can be made.

Dental technicians blend science with artistic knowledge to recreate natural-looking teeth. Artistically, they use frame and reference, proportion and idealism, perspective and illusion as well as symmetry to mimic nature. Understanding the language of colors and using new dental materials and techniques has allowed the dentist to not only "fill" missing spaces but create cosmetic dentistry artwork from crowns and tooth bonding as well.

By Benjamin O. Watkins, III, DDS

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.

The Art of the Dental Crown

Cosmetic dentists aren't all white coats and Novocaine. There is both art and science in a dentist's day. Case in point: what appears to be more or less routine restoration of missing or broken teeth - a dental crown or a dental bridge - is akin to principles of architecture.

Think of the arch of your mouth like the roof of a house. Each element of the structure relies on another. If a rafter breaks, the entire building will, sooner or later, buckle. So it is with your teeth.

The mouth is balanced; teeth function together. One missing tooth can cause permanent changes in your bite. Neighboring teeth drift into the empty space. The opposing tooth will actually grow longer and longer, further frustrating normal chewing. You'll tend to favor one side of your mouth over another. This old house is eventually doomed.

Dentists, then, are believers in tooth restoration and dental crowns. With all the new materials cosmetic dentistry offers today, virtually any mouth can be restored to good working order. A tooth that might have been lost five years ago now has many options for renewed vitality.

And the cosmetic results that can be achieved are, well, awesome. When it comes to new dental technologies, take advantage. Your cosmetic dentist will be there when you're ready to go for it.

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.